The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Financial cards are used by individuals and businesses for the payment of amounts owed for a purchase. These financial cards represent a financial account of that of a user with a financial institution wherein the user has opened an account and has agreed to reimburse the financial institution for transactions where the card is a credit card or the user agrees to prefund the account with a prefunded amount from which the purchases are subtracted where the card is a debit or prepaid card. Each of these cards includes a financial account number that is unique to that particular financial card and that uniquely identify the financial account of that particular user and card. Each financial account and/or financial card can also have an associated security code and/or personal identification number (PIN).
The user of the card presents the financial card either at the time of a purchase for processing using a point of sale transaction terminal that enters the account number and can also include entering the PIN or security code. A similar process is handled via manual input for on-line payment systems or to agents of third parties over the telephone. In this later case, the account number and possibly the PIN and security code are entered by the agent into a similar transaction processing system for providing such information for processing of the payment of a transaction amount. A centralized transaction processing system of the financial institution receives the financial account number and the security code or PIN from the transaction processing entity along with the identification of the payee, authorizes the payment, and arranges for the transfer of the transaction amount from the financial account of the user to the designated account or financial institution of the payee. The transaction amount is either deducted from the prepaid funds of the financial account of a user where the financial account and card are prepaid or debit accounts or is reflected as a credit purchase in the user's account for a credit account that is subsequently billed to the user for payment reimbursement to the user's financial institution.
Generally, these financial cards, the financial account, the transaction processing systems at the point of sale or entry and the transaction processing system of the financial institution are only capable of a single financial account and a single financial account number. As such, the user must manage their purchases and/or prefunding of the debit card account on a total account basis and can only allocate the purchases for personal financial management as a separate process individually. While users often have aided their management through opening of multiple accounts with the same or multiple financial institutions, these require different financial accounts and different financial cards, which is often not desirable to the user.